Palestine - AL-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Palestine cover image

Palestine

January 31, 2026

Ramallah 6:38 am

11°C

JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images

As phase 2 looms, Netanyahu insists no Turkish or Qatari troops in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a Tuesday address that his country would not completely withdraw from the Gaza Strip under the next phase of the ceasefire, which the Trump administration is pushing to advance.

Truck carrying aid enters Gaza through the border crossing on Oct. 12, 2025, in Rafah, Egypt.

Israel recovers final Gaza hostage, Rafah crossing set to reopen: What to know

The Rafah crossing is expected to allow Palestinians to exit and reenter the Gaza Strip, primarily for those seeking medical treatment.

An Oscar statue at the red carpet at the 96th Annual Academy Awards, Dolby Theatre, Hollywood, California, March 9, 2024.

Culture

'Gesture of resistance': Gaza war and Iran repression in Oscars spotlight

This year’s Oscars nominations include Middle Eastern films whose themes of war, government violence and protest have shone a spotlight on politics at home.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Analysis

Under fire at home over Board of Peace, Netanyahu hints Trump could OK Gaza war restart

According to diplomatic sources, Netanyahu believes that at some point Israel will receive a green light from the Trump administration to resume fighting in Gaza, though his coalition partners do not seem reassured.

In Tel Aviv, reporting on national security, Israeli politics, defense

Latest News

Egypt's economy can weather more Red Sea attacks, says finance minister

Ships sail along Egypt's Suez Canal near Ismailia on April 16, 2025.

Analysis

Trump's Board of Peace faces first test: Disarming Hamas

Palestinian Hamas militants secure the area as Egyptian workers, accompanied by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross, search for the last two remaining bodies of hostages from under the rubble of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern of Gaza Strip on Dec. 1, 2025.

Elizabeth Hagedorn

By Elizabeth Hagedorn

In Washington, DC, reporting on diplomacy, regional politics, human rights

Putin offers $1B in frozen assets for Gaza Board of Peace — will US unfreeze them?

Ramil Sitdikov / AFP via Getty Images

Herzog: Saudi normalization talks could resume as Gaza ceasefire enters next phase

Israel's President Isaac Herzog gestures as he speaks during the World Economic Forum annual meeting, Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2026.

Beatrice Farhat

Associate Editor (Lebanon)

In Beirut, reporting on regional news, culture, conflict

Daoud Kuttab

Palestine Columnist

In Amman, reporting on Palestinian politics

Rasha Abou Jalal

In Gaza City, reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Abeer Ayyoub

In Istanbul, reporting on Palestine

Naima Morelli

In Rome, reporting on Middle East culture

Fatima AbdulKarim

In Ramallah, reporting on the West Bank

Members of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement, march in Gaza City on May 22, 2021, in commemoration of senior Hamas commander Bassem Issa who was killed along with other militants in Israeli airstrikes last week.

US imposes sanctions on Hamas' envoy to Iran, IRGC trainers

The sanctions targeting Hamas and its benefactors in Iran followed the Pentagon's announcement of airstrikes targeting Iran-linked facilities in eastern Syria.

Smoke and fire rise from buildings as people gather amid the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on Gaza City on Oct. 26, 2023, as battles continue between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group.

Day 21 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Friday, Oct. 27

Graves are made ready to receive the new dead in the cemetery in Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip.

Gaza turns to ‘graveyard’ as bombing, siege intensify

Despite the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip, the UN Security Council has yet to pass a resolution that would bring a sliver of hope to the Gazan population.

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images

Hamas delegation arrives in Russia

Russia maintains cordial relations with Hamas as well as Israel and other actors in the Gaza conflict. The discussions with Hamas in Moscow focused on the release of foreign hostages.

Israel says it is seeking to totally destroy Gaza's Hamas rulers after the deadly October 7 attacks which caused the worst bloodshed in Israel's history

Day 20 of Hamas-Israel war blog: Thursday, Oct. 26

Israeli soldiers prepare a tank near the border between Israel and Lebanon on Oct. 16, 2023, in Shlomi, Israel.

Hamas threatens 'hell on earth' in event of Israeli ground invasion

Israel has amassed troops and military equipment in preparation for its ground offensive on Gaza, while Palestinian factions have further warned that the Israeli army would incur more losses should it invade Gaza.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan (L) meets with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha, Oct. 25, 2023.

Qatar ‘hopeful’ about hostage talks with Hamas as Turkey warns of regional shockwaves

As Qatar expresses hope for the release of more Israeli hostages, Turkey’s top diplomat has warned Israel against a ground invasion.

Gaza journalists

At least 24 journalists, majority Palestinians, killed in Israel-Hamas war

The number of journalists killed in the Israel-Hamas war in three weeks already exceeds the number of journalists killed in Ukraine in the year and half since Russia invaded, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Erdogan

Turkey’s Erdogan hails Hamas as liberators, leaving detente with Israel in shreds

The Turkish president's speech on Wednesday aligned himself more firmly with the Sunni Muslim world, while pushing aside the benefits of closer ties with Israel and other regional economies.

NINEVEH, IRAQ - JUNE 20: Iraqi PMF fighters June 20, 2017 on the Iraq-Syria border in Nineveh, Iraq. The Popular Mobilisation Front (PMF) forces, composed of majority Shi'ite militia, part of the Iraqi forces, have pushed Islamic State militants from the north-western Iraq border strip back into Syria. The PMF now hold the border, crucial to the fall of Islamic State in Mosul, blocking the Islamic State supply route for militants from Syria to Mosul. (Martyn Aim/Getty Images).

No consensus yet among Iraqi armed groups on joining Israel-Hamas war

Interviews with faction leaders reveal anger with Hamas over starting a unilateral conflict, but also a determination to get involved if Hezbollah greenlights such a move and Israel invades Gaza.

US President Joe Biden holds a press conference following a solidarity visit to Israel, on October 18, 2023, in Tel Aviv, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Thousands of people, both Israeli and Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023, after Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip, entered southern Israel in a surprise attack leading Israel to declare war on Hamas in Gaza on October 8. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP) (Photo by BREN

Al-Monitor/Premise poll: 82% of Americans wary of US intervention in Israel-Hamas war

As the Israel-Hamas war rages on and threatens to spill into a wider regional conflict, Americans are either unsure of or reject a US military intervention in the region, according to a new Al-Monitor/Premise poll.

Jordan queen rues West's 'glaring double standard' on Gaza

Agence France-Presse